Thursday 14 June 2012 08.43 EDT
First published on Thursday 14 June 2012 08.43 EDT

David Dimbleby is to front a new BBC series looking at Britain's maritime art and culture, while The Culture Show is to be cut to just 30 minutes and spread across the year, as the corporation announces a shake-up of its arts programming schedule.

Dimbleby will helm the BBC1 series, with the working title Britain and the Sea, where he will seal on his cutter Rocket to explore maritime art, culture, music and literature.

BBC2's flagship arts programme, The Culture Show, will undergo a major change to scheduling and format.

The one-hour show currently airs on Friday nights at 7pm for about half the year, with a long break in summer.

However, the BBC is to cut the show to just 30 minutes but extend its run to 45 weeks, and start airing it at 10pm on Wednesday nights.

Due to the large number of cultural events on this year the show is to return for the summer, starting next Wednesday, with 10 hour-long specials also planned, the first of which will air next Friday.

A spokeswoman for the BBC said that the overall number of hours that The Culture Show will be broadcast per year will remain unchanged.

Other commissions in the BBC's autumn arts schedule include a three-part series, Treasures of Ancient Rome, on BBC4 fronted by Alastair Sooke; and Dr James Fox with a new BBC4 series called A History of the World in Three Colours.

BBC1's flagship arts strand Imagine will return in the autumn with an exclusive interview with Salman Rushdie, access to Ian Rankin to talk about bringing back his crime character Rebus and a look at British choreographer Matthew Bourne.

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